The Secret Inside

Chapter 04

"Late on the first day are we, Ms. Rayne?" Mr. McClare bit out in his deep voice. He watched me carefully, his dark beady eyes staring into my soul. "I wouldn't make this a habit." He turned around signaling that I could go find a seat.

'Math first block with Mr. McClare should definitely be a crime', I thought bitterly.

Math was my worst subject, even though I always got at least a C, which Jess tried to convince me was pretty good. I looked around the class and chose a seat next to Aurora. I had a few classes with her last year so we were pretty good friends. She looked up and smiled before grabbing a pencil to get ready to take notes. She was diagonally across from me so we couldn't talk much, but I guess that's what I get for being late.

"Since this is the beginning of the year we are going to start off with the easy stuff." Mr. McClare began, "I expect your full concentration to be on the discussion because if you fail I will not be taking any of the blame for it."

Mr.McClare began a speech, scribbling all over the white board about different formulas and equations. I took notes and tried look intrigued by what he was saying, but in reality I had no clue what he was talking about. How was this for beginners?

I looked over onto Aurora's notebook which had a few notes but mostly random scribbles. I sat through Mr. McClare's lesson, barely able to comprehend anything he said before he switched to a new topic. The bell rang after what seemed like hours and I was let out of the most dreadfully boring class ever. I checked my next class, it was gym. I groaned. I trudged over to the gym and sat in the bleachers with a few other girls I knew, waiting for the gym teacher to arrive.

As soon as I saw the bright platinum blonde hair I cringed, of course Nikki had gym this block too. Nikki sat over with the guys and giggled when they complimented her. I saw the other girls exchanging looks and scowling. I barely resisted the urge to laugh. Miss Carlsen opened the gym doors and hurried over to the bleachers. Cali had told me that she was nice, but who knew. Cali was a major athlete and gym teachers tended to like those types of kids the best.

"Okay everybody, you're all here?" She asked after role call, "let's get started then!"

Since today was the first day nobody had brought any clothes for gym, so Miss Carlsen decided that we would start on soccer next class. I was actually pleasantly surprised, saying as it was one of few sports that I wouldn't completely embarrass myself in.
For the duration of the class we sat around and set up the lockers we would be using for the semester. Nikki kept looking over at me the whole class, but I pretended not to see her. Hopefully she would just get over whatever it was that she was so angry with me about.

I had a free block next so I was going to meet Jess at The Lounge. The lounge was where most students met in free block when they didn't want to go off campus. We were allowed to do basically whatever we wanted there, so it's nice to be able to relax a little and sometimes do homework. The bell blared loudly across the school and I grabbed my backpack to begin my trek around the school. I pulled out my phone to ask Jess if she was there yet when I was suddenly thrown into the locker next to me.

"Watch where you're going!" A voice growled menacingly.

I almost laughed at how many times I had heard that today. I grabbed my phone off the ground and quickly checked the screen. 

"sorry I was just-" whoever it was, was gone.

I turned around and saw a guy with black hair already going in the other direction, before disappearing into the crowd. I frowned, but continued in the direction of the lounge.
I made it there a little later than planned and found my way over to Jess who had saved me a seat.

"So, why are you late, get in a fight?" Jess remarked sarcastically, her eyes sparkling with laughter.

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened." I rolled my eyes and sat down.

"I'm already missing summer and it's only the first day of school." Jess pouted.

"I hear you." I groaned, "Mr. McClare already assigned a bunch of packets, which are probably going to take me forever, saying as I pretty much suck at math." I frowned and threw my books down on the table.

Jess giggled and brought out her own work. I could see her phone, which was meticulously hidden in a history book, and saw her typing rapidly every couple minutes then glancing at me. Knowing Jess she was probably planning something crazy. I was soon absorbed in my geometry homework and with some help from Jess, I was actually kind of understanding it. The noise in the room faded to a dull whisper and out of no where I started getting the weirdest feeling. A sharp prickling sensation crawled up my back and I slowly looked up from my paper, scared of what could possibly be there. I felt like everything was in slow motion, which made everything all the more bizarre. The people around me seemed to appear frozen, their eyes staring out vacantly. Jess sat next to me, mouth still open as she told me about her experiences in San Diego just a few seconds before. I felt my pencil drop from my hand. A wispy form of a body came out of nowhere. With long red hair and black eyes, I felt like I should know the figure in front of me. It was like whenever I tried to remember I was shot back and forgot what I was thinking for a moment.

'Oh Delilah when are you going to come back and play?' I felt the voice purr in my head.

She started taking small steps toward me, her feet hovering over the floor. I shot up and struggled to move backwards. It felt like I was trying to move through honey. I tripped over the little orange sofa behind me and landed with a thud on the ground. Jess still didn't move. I crawled backwards and pushed myself up against the wall and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Please, Just go away!" I yelled.

"What?" Jess looked up at me.

"Oh, um...nothing, I was just thinking." I mumbled and tucked my hair behind my ear.

I looked slowly around the room, noting that I was back in my seat.

'Holy crap, I must be way too tired.' I inwardly groaned.

I hoped that Jess wouldn't try to pursue the topic because I didn't have any rational excuse for my sudden outburst. I could feel her watching me so I let out a shaky breath and smiled at her.

"Hey, it's no big deal." I spoke quietly.

"It's okay, Lai, I can see that whatever happened made you really upset, so you can just tell me about it whenever you want, okay?" Jess said softly.

"Thanks." I croaked.

I picked up my pencil and started on my geometry homework as if nothing had ever happened. Every time I tried to think more about the woman there was an instantaneous pounding on the inside of my skull like my head was being bashed in.

One question kept repeating itself over and over in my head: how could I remember someone I'd never seen before?